Development of CMC-Materials for Lightweight Armor

Ceramic armor systems offer excellent protection against armor piercing ammunition at significantly lower area density compared to conventional hard armor steel. Their main disadvantages are the high costs of the commonly used monolithic ceramic tiles and the inadequate protection against multiple hits. To improve the multiple hit performance, various ceramic matrix composite (CMC) materials have been tested successfully, but due to their even higher costs compared to monolithic tiles, they are not commonly used. In the work presented, a different approach with novel CMC materials, developed by the DLR via the cost effective LSI process (Liquid silicon infiltration), has been chosen. In a first screening test, the ballistic performance of different carbon fiber (CF) reinforced C/C-SiC and one biomorphic SiSiC against 7.62 x 51 mm AP were studied. The novel SiSiC material was shown to possess good single hit properties, whereas a good fracture behavior was obtained with the carbon fiber reinforced C/C-SiC materials.